Practice question

STORM achieves super-resolution through stochastic photoswitching of organic cyanine dyes. Individual fluorophores randomly transition between dark and bright states so only sparse subset emits per frame. Precise Gaussian fitting of each blinking event localizes molecules with 10-30 nanometer accuracy. Iterative activation, imaging, and bleaching cycles over thousands of frames systematically reconstruct complete nanoscale architecture. This single-molecule localization strategy overcomes diffraction by temporal separation rather than optical narrowing, revealing detailed organization of microtubules, nuclear pores, clathrin coats, and membrane domains invisible to conventional fluorescence microscopy methods.